A mysterious shipwreck deep in the Monterey Bay was discovered by scientists who were on an expedition studying earthquake fault lines."It’s pretty rare. To my knowledge, a wreck of this size, it's the first time that we have come across one that we didn’t know was there," said Charlie Paull, a scientist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.The ship was found in the Monterey Bay submarine canyon, a mile below the ocean's surface.Little was known about the ship until it popped up on sonar maps. Curious about what it could be, researchers sent down Doc Ricketts, a remotely-operated vehicle with a video camera, to record the wreckage.Doc Ricketts captured the ship’s name: Umpqua II.MBARI typed "Umpqua II" into Google, and solved the mystery. "It took less than 30 seconds to do a Google search on it, turns out this is a barge that ran into some trouble in Moss Landing harbor,” Paull said.That was back in 1982, and when the boat couldn't be salvaged, it was towed out to sea and intentionally sunk in the Monterey canyon.It remained a deep sea secret until researchers stumbled upon it.Researchers say the ship has been colonized by a few starfish and other sea creatures, but otherwise, it is not heavily overgrown with marine life.Scientists said the sunken ship may actually help them study the long term effects of the deep sea on man-made objects and vice versa."One of the things we’re interested in is how wrecks like that get colonized how they decay what happens with time and I think it’s an opportunity for local studies to be launched to understand that in a place where we going to be operating in those water depths frequently," Paull said.There are no immediate plans to return to the boat or haul it up from the ocean bottom. MBARI said even though its researchers have been diving in the Monterey Bay's canyon since 1989, the discovery reminded scientists of how little deep seafloor has actually been observed first-hand. As MBARI develops more research tools such as the mapping AUV, additional discoveries are bound to come.

MOSS LANDING, Calif. —

A mysterious shipwreck deep in the Monterey Bay was discovered by scientists who were on an expedition studying earthquake fault lines.

"It’s pretty rare. To my knowledge, a wreck of this size, it's the first time that we have come across one that we didn’t know was there," said Charlie Paull, a scientist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

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The ship was found in the Monterey Bay submarine canyon, a mile below the ocean's surface.

Little was known about the ship until it popped up on sonar maps. Curious about what it could be, researchers sent down Doc Ricketts, a remotely-operated vehicle with a video camera, to record the wreckage.

Doc Ricketts captured the ship’s name: Umpqua II.

MBARI typed "Umpqua II" into Google, and solved the mystery.

"It took less than 30 seconds to do a Google search on it, turns out this is a barge that ran into some trouble in Moss Landing harbor,” Paull said.

That was back in 1982, and when the boat couldn't be salvaged, it was towed out to sea and intentionally sunk in the Monterey canyon.

It remained a deep sea secret until researchers stumbled upon it.

Researchers say the ship has been colonized by a few starfish and other sea creatures, but otherwise, it is not heavily overgrown with marine life.

Scientists said the sunken ship may actually help them study the long term effects of the deep sea on man-made objects and vice versa.

"One of the things we’re interested in is how wrecks like that get colonized how they decay what happens with time and I think it’s an opportunity for local studies to be launched to understand that in a place where we going to be operating in those water depths frequently," Paull said.

There are no immediate plans to return to the boat or haul it up from the ocean bottom.

MBARI said even though its researchers have been diving in the Monterey Bay's canyon since 1989, the discovery reminded scientists of how little deep seafloor has actually been observed first-hand. As MBARI develops more research tools such as the mapping AUV, additional discoveries are bound to come.